New Delhi: State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India (OIL) are likely to come out with bids offering their fields to private sector companies in the next six months.

At least 54 fields included in the initial list belong to the country’s largest oil and gas producer ONGC. The Union Cabinet allowed the two oil companies to bring in private sector players for increasing production, through introduction of new technology.

“The enhanced production profile ONGC and OIL are working on include about 113 fields. Of this, we have enhanced oil recovery or improved oil recovery plans for at least 50 per cent of the fields. The remaining will become part of this policy. They comprise 2-3 per cent of the existing production of these companies,” said an official, who did not want to be named.

More than five fields of OIL are likely to be on offer. The two companies will soon appoint a consultant and the modalities of bidding will be worked out based on its report. Read the rest of this entry »

New Delhi: The Union government on Tuesday decided to offer the private sector bigger oil and gas areas that belong to its companies Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Oil India on relaxed conditions.

“To enhance production from existing nomination fields of ONGC and OIL, enhanced production profile will be prepared by both PSUs. For production enhancement, bringing new technology, and capital, national oil companies will be allowed to induct private sector partners,” said a government press release. Read the rest of this entry »

New Delhi: The Centre has exempted industries like steel, cement and metal from mandatory prior environment clearance for setting up a new or expanding the existing captive power plant employing waste heat recovery boilers (WHRB) without using any auxiliary fuel.

The exemption to industries having potential for heat recovery has been given to promote energy conservation and reduce green house gas emissions, according to an order.

India is feasting on Venezuelan oil, after the US imposed a de facto ban on crude imports from the Latin American nation.

While flows to the US came to a halt, India became the No. 1 buyer of Venezuelan crude in the first half of February, with imports jumping 66 per cent to 620,000 barrels a day. Indian refiners Reliance Industries and Nayara Energy, which is backed by Rosneft Oil Co PJSC, are driving the boost. Read the rest of this entry »

New Delhi: Investments worth over Rs 2.50 lakh crore in thermal power projects (based on domestic coal, imported coal and gas) are facing stress, and immediate remedial measures are needed to ensure that they are revived in a time-bound manner.

The ASSOCHAM-Grant Thornton joint study noted that the country’s power sector has been one of the highly stressed sectors in recent times, with loans worth approximately Rs 1 lakh crore having turned bad or been recast.

“As per the recent estimates, around 66,000 MW capacity is facing various degrees of financial stress, including 54,800 MW of coal-based power, 6,830 MW of gas-based power and 4,570 MW of hydropower with the lenders having an exposure of around Rs 3 lakh crore to these assets, which is alarming, to say the least,” noted the study titled ‘Stressed assets in the Indian thermal power sector’. Read the rest of this entry »

To hold on to their market monopoly against the aggressive expansion of private fuel retailers like Nayara Energy and Reliance Industries, state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) are set to more than double their retail outlets in the next three years. This is likely to see an investment of about Rs 80,000-90,000 crore in the sector.

The three OMCs — Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) — have got bids for 95 per cent of the 78,493 sites they had offered late last year for new retail outlets. The three companies put together got over 400,000 bids for the areas on offer. “All the three companies are getting enthusiastic response from across the country. We have received offers for over 95 per cent of the locations on offer. IOC is likely to roll out over 37,000 new outlets under this auction, while rest will be shared by other companies,” confirmed Gurmeet Singh, director (marketing), IOC. Bidders have shown interest in 74,608 locations, while 3,885 sites did not get bids. Read the rest of this entry »

Ahmedabad: Foraying into petrochemicals, the Adani group has announced a joint venture with German major BASF SE for setting up manufacturing units in acrylics at Rs 16,000 crore at the former’s Mundra port in Gujarat. Signed as a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, the JV will see BASF hold the majority of equity, apparently its largest investment in India to date. Adani says a feasibility study will be completed by the end of 2019.

The investment being envisaged is for development, construction and operation of factories for propane dehydrogenation (PDH), oxo C4 complex products (butanols and 2-ethylhexanol), glacial acrylic acid (GAA), butyl acrylate (BA) and other downstream products. Meant predominantly for the Indian markets, these are aimed at a wide range of local industries, including construction, automotives and coatings, whose growing demand is currently supplied via import. “India continues to be a very large importer of petrochemicals, given the rapid expansion of the middle class, and this leads to a significant outflow of precious foreign exchange. Our partnership with BASF will allow us to produce in Mundra several of the chemicals along the C3 chemical value chain that we are currently importing,” said Gautam Adani, chairman, Adani Group.

The site in Mundra would be BASF’s first carbon dioxide-neutral one. The two firms say they jointly developed an overall plan for supplying only renewable energy. As a result, in addition to the investment outlined in this MoU, BASF also plans to co-invest as a minority partner in a wind and solar energy park.